


Count Me In

by rebekahdarian



Series: 5+1 Things [17]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5+1, 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Childhood Friends, Cute, Human AU, Ironic Humor, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, everyone knows, except Stiles, oblivious!Stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 09:38:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16092983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebekahdarian/pseuds/rebekahdarian
Summary: The 5 times Stiles was completely oblivious and the 1 time the light bulb flicked on.





	Count Me In

One of Stiles’s earliest memories was of sitting in his mom’s lap, tracing his dad’s name on the inside of her wrist. 

“Will I have one someday?” he asked, looking at his smaller, unmarked wrists.

“Yes, darling.” Claudia hugged him tighter to her chest. “When you turn eighteen, a timer will appear right here.” She lightly touched his wrist. “It’ll count down the years, months, days, and hours to when you’ll meet your soulmate, your best friend for life.” She nuzzled the top of his head. “Your partner in crime.” 

Stiles threw his head back in laughter. “Then Daddy’ll have to arrest us!” He twisted around to face her. “Then it’ll turn into their name, like yours and Daddy’s, right?”

Claudia nodded. “Yes, but only when you recognize them. Your dad and I knew each other for _three weeks_ before we realized we were soulmates and our names appeared.”

Stiles scrunched up his face. “It’ll be forever ’til I’m eighteen.”

Claudia smiled down at him. “It’ll go faster than you think. Now, come on, we have a playdate with the Hales.” 

 

**1**

Stiles popped out of bed like a high powered jack-in-the-box. He leaped across his cluttered floor, dodging piles of clothes and textbooks on the way to the door.

Today was the _day_! The timer to meeting his soulmate would appear, if it hadn’t already. He glanced down at the long sleeve of his shirt; the cuff hung low, covering where the timer would appear. 

He shouldered the bathroom door open, using his free hand to tug up the sleeve. 

Tattooed dark grey on his wrist were the eight most disappointing numbers Stiles had ever seen: **00:00:00:00**

 

“I’m defective!” Stiles held up his wrist for Scott and Kira to inspect. The clamor of high school students filled the hall. They took refuge up against the lockers.

Scott grabbed his hand, twisting it to see the timer better. 

“Ow,” Stiles complained.

Kira smacked Scott’s shoulder. “You’re going to break his wrist!”

“He’s fine. Huh.” Scott frowned. “Mine didn’t say that until I met Kira.” He released him. 

Kira held her hand out, so Stiles put his hand in hers, wrist up. “Maybe you should ask Derek,” she suggested. She smiled a little, like she knew something he didn’t. “His did that, too. He might have figured out what it means.”

“Kira, you’re a genius!” Stiles gasped. Of course he’d known Derek’s own mark had done the same thing. 

Claudia and Talia had frowned over it for weeks. Maybe they _had_ figured it out by now.

“I’ll call him after school,” Stiles decided. 

 

xxx

“Mom says it’s because I’ve already met them,” Derek said into the phone, sounding distracted. 

Stiles leaned against the jeep, juggling an armful of books as he struggled to unlock the door. “So,” he huffed, “I’ve probably met mine, too.”

“Yes, but the name won’t appear until you realize who they are.”

“I know that—aha!” He levered the jeep door open with his foot.

“Are you alright?” Derek asked cautiously.

“Fantastic.” Stiles dumped the books onto the passenger seat. “You know what this means?”

There was a pause. “What?”

“We have to go through everyone in Beacon Hills to find out who they are!” Stiles clambered into the driver’s seat. “I’ll help you find your soulmate, you can help me find mine!”

“You realize Beacon Hills isn’t as small of a town as it feels, right?”

“Then we might as well start now.” Stiles shoved the keys into the ignition. “I’ll start. Kira and Scott are definitely out. One down, a couple thousand more to go.”

 

**2**

It had taken two days for Stiles to figure out that the majority of Beacon Hills had met and recognized their soulmates, or their countdown was still going or hadn’t appeared yet, which obviously crossed both Stiles and Derek off their lists. 

“Lydia and Jackson have a second timer,” Derek said, twisting in the chair at Stiles’s desk. “We could see how close they are to meeting their third.”

Stiles’s lips twisted. It was true he’d crushed on Lydia through middle and early high school, but in all honesty, he wasn’t sure he could see himself with Jack _ass_ Whittemore, even if it meant being with Lydia, too.

“It could be platonic,” Derek mused.

“For me or you?” Stiles countered, spreading yearbooks across his bed.

Derek threw him a baleful look. “Would it hurt to try since it’s a possibility?”

Stiles sighed. “No.”

They had shared three schools, seven classrooms, and probably twice as many acquaintances, but neither Stiles nor Derek had either Jackson or Lydia’s phone numbers. 

The ride to the Whittemore mansion took half the time it had taken for Stiles to find the charger to the phone he’d had in middle school and urge it to life in the hopes of finding a number. But even back then, Lydia ran in a different social circle than he did.

They got out of the car and made their way to the front door. 

Jackson swung it open after their third knock. “What do you want?” he demanded, one hand on the door, the other on the frame.

“Have you and Lydia met your third?” Sties blurted unceremoniously. 

Jackson’s brow furrowed, mouth opening, but Stiles continued, cutting him off: “My timer’s at zero and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t you.” He turned his wrist over as proof.

“No,” Jackson said flatly, thinly veiled horror crossing his face. 

“What about Derek?” Stiles grabbed at Derek’s wrist to show his timer, but Derek held it out of reach, shooting him an impatient look. It _was_ rude, he guessed, to show off someone else’s timer, but they had a _mission_ here. 

Jackson’s expression flickered between confusion and amusement. “Mine’s still going.” He smirked and held up his own wrist, the timer just below Lydia’s name showing two more years and some months. He sneered, gaze flicking between them like he was privy to something they weren’t. “Good luck.” He slammed the door. 

 

 **3**

As it turned out, Isaac Lahey and Danny Mahealani also had timers marked at zero. Stiles and Danny shared the same computer class, and Derek would see Isaac at lacrosse practice. 

Stiles felt like the school day dragged on for eternity. By the time he flew into the computer lab, he felt fit to explode. “Danny!” he yelled, crashing into his computer chair. “Am I your soulmate?”

Danny blinked up at him uncomprehendingly. “What?”

“Am I your soulmate?” Stiles repeated, waving his wrist in front of his ace.

Danny frowned. “No? Have you spoken to Derek?”

“Is _he_ your soulmate?” Stiles asked quickly, moving out of the way as a kid sat next to them. 

“I really don’t think so,” Danny said carefully. The frown deepened as a blush crept up his neck. “Isaac and I are seeing a movie later. I’m _hoping_ it’s him.” He thumbed the timer on his own wrist absentmindedly. “Sorry.”

Damn.

“Stilinski, take a seat!”

 

**4**

Erica flopped down at the lunch table, her tray clattering against the top. “I hear you’re hunting for your soulmate,” she said with a shark’s smile, opening her milk carton.

“And Derek’s. We’re helping each other.” Stiles stared at his food. He wished he and Derek shared a lunch block, but since luck was against them, they hadn’t shared lunch since freshman year. He missed having lunch together. Good company seemed to make the cafeteria food more palatable. 

“How’s that going for you?” She took a bite of the “chicken steak”.

“Are _you_ either of our soulmates?” Stiles tried suspiciously. She seemed entirely too cheerful to be completely uninvolved. After they’d narrowed down the potential list, he’d thought this would have been easier.

“No. Too bad.” She winked at him and held up her own wrist; her timer was down to months.

Stiles sighed. 

 

**5**

Derek called Stiles after school to confirm Isaac was not either of their mystery soulmates.

Stiles told him Danny and Erica were also off the list. 

“I didn’t think Erica would be, she still has time.” He hummed. “Boyd’s the last person in town that I know of marked at zero.”

“Then we get Boyd next,” Stiles said. 

They said goodbye and hung up; Stiles’s heart had taken refuge around his stomach. It was possible he or Derek had met their soulmate as they were passing _through_ Beacon Hills. His mind jumped to every kid in his classes who had moved away, or complete strangers he’d met on public transit. He toyed with his phone case. What if Boyd was _his_ soulmate? Then it’d be Derek left alone and wondering, much like he’d already been doing.

Stiles heaved a long sigh. If it came down between the two of them, he hoped it was Derek who found his soulmate first. He’d gone longer in the radio silence of the unknown. Stiles could wait a little longer.

Stiles waited until five before calling Boyd.

“ _Derek already called me,_ ” he answered, only sounding mildly annoyed. “ _I found my soulmate two days ago, it’s not either of you._ ”

“Alright. Thanks anyway.”

And that was it, Stiles realized. There was no one left. 

 

**+1**

Derek spread his homework across the Stilinski dining room table, as completely at ease in Stiles’s house as he was at the Hales. “Are you alright?” he asked. 

He must’ve noticed Stiles’s quiet mood, despite Stiles’s attempts to be his usual self.

“Yeah.” Stiles sat across from him. “Slightly disappointed that we didn’t find who our soulmates were.”

“I’m sorry,” Derek said. He opened his English book, frowning at a half-written page of _math_ notes that fell out. “Sometimes it takes a while to realize who they are.”

Stiles waved his hands like he could pull the answers from thin air. “But you deserve to know who your soulmate is!” 

Derek’s head lifted a bit at that.

“You’ve been waiting longer than I have, and, yes, I’d like to know who I’m destined to fight crime with, but so do you!” 

Derek nodded and made a non-committal noise. 

Stiles stared at him. That wasn’t exactly the reaction he’d been expecting to his ramble. He frowned, narrowing his eyes. He’d known Derek his whole life. Something clicked. “You—do you know who your soulmate is?” he asked, homework long forgotten as he stared intensely at Derek’s bent head. 

“The names don’t reveal at the same time,” Derek said edgily. “It’s when you figure out who it is, no matter if the other person realizes or not.”

“So, who is it?” Stiles demanded, leaping forward and snatching at Derek’s hand.

Derek jumped back out of reach, nearly tipping his chair. “The other person’s supposed to figure it out, Stiles.”

Perhaps it was the way his name rolled off Derek’s tongue, or the way his eyes danced mischievously, reminding Stiles of all the trouble they’d gotten into as kids, but something fell into place. 

“Derek?” Stiles asked hesitantly, glancing down to his wrist. The numbers swirled, twisting and arranging until **Derek** was written in their place.

Derek’s face lit up. He held up his own wrist. **Stiles** was written neatly on the pale, thin skin of his wrist, pulse tapping against the _L_. 

“You let me lead you on a wild goose chase!” Stiles gasped, throwing a balled up napkin at him. “And let me chase my own tail!”

Derek laughed. “Just like when we were younger.”


End file.
